Applications

Commercials on Hulu getting on your nerves? Now there's a way to skip them, provided you're willing to pay a little more each month. Hulu has announced a commercial-free version of the service that will cost $11.99 per month rather than the usual $7.99.

Have you ever wished you could be alerted when you're driving before you reach dangerous intersections? It doesn't hurt to be extra cautious, look in all directions, and be prepared when you're about to cross an intersection where accidents happen more frequently than in other parts of your city, does it? That's why Waze is introducing a new alert feature in 5 major US cities: Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

Waze uses its own previous data as well as that officially received from the 5 cities to determine the intersections with higher risks of collisions (vehicle to vehicle, bike, or pedestrian) or injuries.

When HERE Maps launched a new beta program back in July, the first major feature was a new contextual menu. Whenever you long-pressed anywhere on a map, four bubbles would pop up that offered information on the location, the option to share, the ability to pull up directions, and the choice to immediately start navigation.

Google's new branding is already starting to worm its way into all corners of the company's design. The web interface is already being updated with new icons based on the sans-serif G, and now app updates have started to show up. No need to wait for update Wednesday this time. So far we've got Maps and Translate.

Hey, remember those many moons ago when ES File Explorer, one of the more popular file managers on Android, released a Material Design user interface update? You should, because it was exactly one moon ago, back at the beginning of August. After a relatively quick closed beta session (which Android Police apparently spoiled by writing a story about a pre-release version uploaded to APK Mirror - sorry), the update is now live in the Play Store as app version 4.0.2. Go download it.

Instagram Direct has been the only way to privately share images and have conversations on the Facebook-owned picture-based social network for a couple of years now. The thing is, every time you want to share a new image privately, you have to start a new thread - even if you want to share something with another user you're already actively having a conversation with.

Today's update brings about a pretty big shift in the way Direct works, as it will be much more dynamic moving forward. Direct messages will now work as threaded, in-line conversations (you know, the way they should be), and new images can be quickly and easily added on-the-fly.

When I was looking at local music players on Android for my roundup, I tried to find an app that would analyze your songs' BPM and let you create playlists accordingly, but couldn't land on one that did the job well. Both DjRun and RockMyRun use BPM to build their playlists, but they are geared toward running and active lifestyles. What if you just wanted slow mellow songs to chill to? Or fast uptempo music to ease your homework struggle? There didn't seem to be an alternative that fit the bill quite well, until Splyce came along today.

For most of my life, the Metal Gear Solid series has been my absolute favorite collection of games - right alongside Red Dead Redemption and The Last of Us. Today marks the release of one of the most anticipated games in the MGS series: The Phantom Pain. I'm sure there are quite a few of you who have already made your way over to Game Stop to pick it up, in fact.

For the release (and those of you who have already grabbed your copy), Konami published the companion app to the Play Store earlier this morning. This app allows gamers to use it as a support terminal to display maps and call in air support helicopters while playing the console version of MGS V: TPP.

Your phone and the services connected to it know a lot about you (creepy, right?), and Bento Launcher is designed to use that data in order to bring relevant information to your home screen. Bento is entering a new phase today, starting with a name change. It's called Scout Launcher, and it's now available to everyone.

Look, you're going to have to deal with the TSA, baggage fees, and all sorts of other junk to hop a flight, so why not make paying for the ticket a little less painful at least? Hopper might be able to help. It came to iOS a few months ago, and now it's on Android. Just tell it when you're flying and to where, then Hopper figures out when you should buy.